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Sankethi grammar
Sankethi has a fairly similar grammar to other Dravidian languages, particularly to Kannada and Tamil. Word order is generally SOV, and the language is highly inflected with seven cases, three genders, and singular and plural numbers. Verbs are inflected for tense, gender, plurality, among other things. The first descriptive grammar published on the Sankethi language was written by Kikkeri Narayana in 1972 as an MA dissertation at Deccan College in PuneNAGARAJA, K.S. “ASPIRATION IN SANKETI TAMIL.” Bulletin of the Deccan College Research Institute, 58/59, 1998, pp. 235–239. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/42930554.. The grammar described in this article is to some extent descriptive, but also inherently prescriptive at the same time in that it seeks to record a consistent, written equivalent for speech. 'Syntax' Questions can be formed either by intonation and/or by changing the order of the sentence to OVS. See the example below. ನೀ ಅಂಗಡಿಕ್ಕಾಹ ಪೋಹಂಡೆಯ. (Nī aṃgaḍikkāha pōhaṃḍeya.) You go to the store. Versus ಅಂಗಡಿಕ್ಕಾಹ ಪೋಹೊಂಡೆಯ ನೀ? (Aṃgaḍikkāha pōhaṃḍeya nī?) Are you going to the store? Note that the first sentence could also be turned into a question by simply changing the intonation to that of a question, though the second sentence is the preferred way of forming a question. 'Nouns' Sankethi nouns are declined according to number and in six cases: nominative, accusative, instrumental-ablative, dative, genitive, and locative. According to C.T. Dathatreya's Sankethi Bhasha Swabodhini, there are seven, but this is because the instrumental and ablative functions of the third case are listed separatelyDathathreya, C. T., Sankethi Bhasha Swabodhini.. Dathatreya also excludes the vocative case, which may come from the traditional views of Kannada grammar. The vocative is also not fully functional case, and not all nouns have a separate form for it, and as such is not included in the traditional list. The case declensions described here also come from Shashank Rao's own research on the subject. The declensional classes are similar to Kannada, marked by human versus non-human and weak (ಇ, ಈ, ಎ, ಏ, ಐ) versus strong vowel (ಅ, ಆ, ಉ, ಊ, ಒ, ಓ, ಔ, ಋ) endings. Gender only exists for human nouns, and is only relevant in the third person verb conjugations. Generally, the verb classes are delineated as 1st (animate strong vowel ending), 2nd (inanimate strong vowel ending), 3rd (animate weak vowel ending), and 4th (inanimate weak vowel ending). Though Sankethi vocabulary is not systematized, there are some general rules for taking nouns from Sanskrit, Tamil, Kannada, or Malayalam. * Most words of Dravidian origin in Kannada that end in ಅ (a) in Kannada and Tamil/Malayalam words ending in உ/ന് (the half u''), including proper nouns, end in the half ಉ ɯ in Sankethi. * Words of Sanskrit origin (though there are exceptions) tend to end in ಒ (oṃ); a way to tell if this is the case is to see if the Telugu, Tamil, or Malayalam cognate ends in the anusvāra (the ''ṃ) or the ending ''-am''. If it does, the word will most likely end in the nasalized oṃ, which is usually written with ಒ because there is no way to indicate a nasalized vowel in the Kannada script (as noted before). Ex. Sankethi ಪಳೊ is related to Tamil பழம், which ends in -am. Therefore, ಪಳೊ is pronounced with a final ಒಂ. * However, as a rule, most words that end in e''in Kannada and ''ai''in Tamil end in ''a''in Sankethi (even if the second rule applies; is especially true of Sanskrit loans). Ex. Compare Kannada ಪ್ರಾರ್ಥನೆ (prārthane) and Tamil பிரார்த்தனை (prārthanai), which is ಪ್ರಾರ್ಥನ (prārthana) in Sankethi. See the table below for case declensions. The nominative is the base form of a given noun, and as such is not included in the table below. 'Pronouns' Sankethi pronouns are varied according to person, number, human versus non-human in the third person, as well as clusivity in second-person plural. These pronouns also possess their own declined forms, which are listed here as well. *ತಾಂಗ is rare in everyday speech. **The use of ಇವ್ಹ್ಯ/ಅವ್ಹ್ಯ is increasingly rare, since the word was historically used to refer to people outside the Sankethi community. Eventually it acquired a more general, pejorative meaning of “those people (outsiders)”, and as such is rarely used. ***These are increasingly rare and replaced by ಇವ್ಹಾ/ಅವ್ಹಾ (ivhā/avhā), perhaps as an influence from Kannada. ****ತಾಂಗ is usually found only in religious contexts, and even then, ನೀಂಗ is often preferred. ತಾಂಗ and ನೀಂಗ have the same inflections and verb conjugations. *****Like Tamil, there is clusivity distinction: ನಾಂಗ (nānga; exclusive) VS ನಾಂಬು (nāmbu/ inclusive), though the frequency usage varies. A good example of its usage is the Sankethi endonym for the language: ಎಂಗಡೆ ವಾರ್ಥೆ (eṃgaḍe vārthe), which implies that the language belongs to the speaker and the Sankethi community, so as to distinguish it from a shared language. Note: the format of the tables for pronouns and verb conjugations is the following simplified from here: ''Accusative Instrumental-Ablative Dative Genitive Locative 'Verbs' Verbs in Sankethi have two kinds of verbs stems. There are verbs that end in ಉ/ಒ (u/o) and ಇ/ಎ (i/e). Generally speaking, they undergo the following changes during conjugation * -ಉ/ಒ verbs (strong vowel stems) simply drop their final vowel before taking endings * -ಇ/ಎ verbs (weak vowel stems) add the euphonic ಯ್ (y) before adding the endings. However, in speech, the ಎ is reduced to ಇ, and even then the final vowel disappears, resulting in a palatalized consonant between the stem and ending. Below are tables that show different tenses, given for the verb ಸಾಪಡು (to eat/drink): Non-Past Simple *In all tenses, the ನೀ form's final -್ಯ (-ya) becomes -ಎಯ (-eya) as a question, and the ನೀಂಗ form changes from -್ಯೊ (-yo) to -ಿಳ (-iḷa) as a question. Non-Past/Present Perfect Past The past tense in Sankethi is complex due to stem rules inherited from Tamil. The past tense is also notable in that the ನೀಂಗ (nīnga) form is where Sankethi's uncommon aspirates are most visible. There a number of different kinds of past tense endings associated with certain verb endings. There are also a number of irregular verbs, with no necessarily discernible pattern. ಪಣ್ಣು - -ಉ ending verbs ಉಡು - -ಡು ending verbs without an stressed penultimate syllable (change to -ಟ್ಟ-) ಸಾಪಡು - -ಡು ending verbs with an unstressed penultimate syllable ಪಾರು ''-''stressed long vowel as the penultimate syllable (change the final syllable to -ತು) ಇಳಿ - -ಇ ending verbs ಉಳು (uḷu to fall) (also ಅಳಿ, ನಡಿ) This is a special pattern unique to ನಿಲ್ಲಿ (nilli) and -ಕ್ಯೊ (-kyo) ending verbs (ex. ತುಂಕ್ಯೊ - tuṃkyo) The following verbs are irregular: ಕುಡು (to give) ಪುಡಿ (to carry) ಚಿರಿ''/''ಉರಿ (to smile/peel) (add -ಚ- before adding endings) ತೋಯಿ (to wash) ವಯ್ಯಿ (to scold) ಇರು (to be) ವರು (to come) ಪೋಹು (to go) ಆಹು (to happen/become) Past Perfect/Past Progressive or Remote Past The past progressive and past perfect in Sankethi are the same, and their meaning is distinguished only by context. For this reason, the conjugations below may be referred to jointly as the remote past. Future This is a hypothetical construction for the future tense in Sankethi, though it functions more like a hypothetical ("Shall I...?"). C.T. Dathathreya reconstructs this set of conjugations by referring to Tamil and Kannada conjugations for the future tense.Dathathreya, C. T., Sankethi Bhasha Swabodhini.In a literary or poetic context, it would likely imply the future tense, and when appearing as an instruction, it has the jussive meaning of "must do" or the passive meaning "will be done". Dathathreya refers to this as the "future indefinite", suggesting a distant (hence very hypothetical) circumstance. Negation Negation is indicated by suffixing the appropriate ending, and similar to Kannada, there are separate forms for each tense. Again, the example verb is ಸಾಪಡು (sāpaḍu). Some Sankethi speakers negate with the ending -ಅಲ್ಲೆ (alle) and others with -ಅಲ್ಲ (alla). It varies with the generation of the speakers and their proximity to Tamil or Kannada communities. Note that the negative future is a hypothetical construction based off of C.T. Dathathreya's reconstruction. Present: ಸಾಪಡಲ್ಲ (sāpaḍalla) Present Progressive: ಸಾಪಡರಾಂಡಿಕ್ಕಲ್ಲ (sāpaḍarāṃḍikkalla) Past/Present Perfect: ಸಾಪಡಿಕ್ಕಲ್ಲ (sāpaḍikkalla) Past Progressive: ಸಾಪಡಾನ್ನಿಂದಲ್ಲ (sāpaḍānnindalla) Future: ಸಪಡವಿಲ್ಲ (sāpaḍavilla) Imperative Prohibitive Participial Form